


Grade A Date

by meandmybrokenfeels



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Asexual Character, Demiromantic Character, Fluff, Getting Together, Homework, M/M, Movie Night, Pansexual Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2018-06-26
Packaged: 2019-05-28 18:24:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,209
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15055070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/meandmybrokenfeels/pseuds/meandmybrokenfeels
Summary: Dex's homework is to go on a date. Only one member of SMH is available to go with him. But it's just for class... right?





	Grade A Date

**Author's Note:**

> This has been sitting in my drafts since November of 2016 and it's finally finished. Based on a true story :)

“Will you go on a date with me?”

Nursey blinked twice, taking in the scene before him. Dex shifted uncomfortably in his seat, a pencil clenched so tightly in his fist it looked ready to snap. The Haus’ kitchen table was covered in now-forgotten homework. What had he walked into?

“I-”

“It’s for class!” Dex cut him off. 

Nursey raised an eyebrow. “That is the strangest excuse I've ever heard. Backing out already? I haven't even given you an answer.”

Dex rolled his eyes. “It's not an excuse. It's an assignment for my Sex Ethics class. We have to go on a date.”

“We as in us specifically? You do understand how fake this sounds, right?”

“No, we as in it’s an assignment for every student in the class, moron.”

“No offense, Poindexter, but… Why are you asking me? Don't you have computer science nerd friends you could ask? Or, I don't know, anyone else?”

“I'm not really close to anyone in my program, Nurse.” Dex sighed, sliding down further in his seat. “I had to turn to the team, but everyone is busy! Chowder is loaded down with homework this weekend. I tried Bitty, but he left for Providence this morning and won't be back till Monday. You know Lardo has her big show coming up, so I couldn't drag her away from the studio. I haven't even been able to find Rans or Holster to ask them.”

Nursey was quiet for a moment. “The question remains: why are you asking me?”

Dex stared at him skeptically. “‘Cause we’re friends, dude. Even though you still drive me crazy. Don't take this the wrong way, but... I'd feel more comfortable if you were there.”

Nursey looked like he was about to say something, but he paused, thinking better of it. “Okay. Yeah.”

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. It’s chill, bro.” The two were quiet for a moment before Nursey cleared his throat and continued. “So, where are you taking me?”

“Coffee at Annie’s?” Dex suggested.

Nursey scoffed, grinning. “What kind of date are you? Am I not worth dinner and a movie?”

The senior defensemen strolled into the kitchen just in time to hear Dex’s reply. “Fine. We’ll do dinner and a movie.”

Holster turned to Ransom, huffing dramatically as he crossed his arms. “Why don’t you ever take me out for dinner and a movie?”

Ransom shrugged. “I’m not doing anything right now. Wanna go?”

“Aight.” 

The pair high fived and exited as quickly as they had appeared, leaving Dex sputtering an excuse while Nursey laughed. Dex smacked him over the head with a notebook.

“Tomorrow at seven. Don’t be late,” Dex said matter-of-factly, gathering his things to leave.

“It’s a date, babe,” Nursey winked, smirking. 

Dex rolled his eyes. “I hate you,” he muttered, not turning around. He hurried out, praying that his ears wouldn’t go bright red before he got out of Nursey’s line of sight.

~~~

The next night, Dex stood outside the restaurant, hands clasped firmly behind his back, avoiding eye contact with the people passing by and wishing he was anywhere else. The place was just nice enough to be a decent date spot, while casual enough that they didn’t really have to dress up. He also wouldn’t have to break the bank to cover their meals.

That is, if Nursey ever bothered to show up.

At exactly 7:09, the man of the hour approached, looking like he didn’t have a care in the world.

“You’re late,” Dex said.

“You waited,” Nursey smiled. 

Dex’s face was as red as his hair, though whether it was from embarrassment or frustration, he couldn’t have said. “No shit, Nurse. I’m getting graded on this.”

“And you didn’t even get me flowers?” Nursey joked.

Dex didn’t say anything as he revealed what he’d been holding behind his back--three daisies, wrapped in crumpled white paper.

Nursey swallowed, without a comeback for once.

“It was on the rubric,” Dex grumbled, shoving the flowers at his date’s chest. “Let’s just go in.”

“Hey,” Nursey said quietly, placing a hand on Dex’s arm to stop him for a moment. “You look nice.”

Dex glanced down at his red button-up and khakis before looking over at Nursey’s blue sweater and chinos. “You don’t look too shabby yourself.” 

They entered the restaurant together as Dex tried to force himself to slow his breathing, hoping it would calm his racing heart. This is for class, he reminded himself. It’s not real.

Even if it was, it would never work.

Words swirled in his brain as he allowed himself to be led to a table. He was snatched from his thoughts by Nursey’s voice. “We’re on a date,” he stage-whispered conspiratorially to the waiter, grinning smugly.

The waiter glanced at Dex, who was staring intensely at the menu and trying his best to disappear. “I see. Would you like the Lovebird Special tonight, then?” He set glasses of water in front of each of them

“Hmm. What exactly does that entail?” Nursey asks. 

Dex closes his eyes and focuses on taking deep breaths. He misses the waiter’s explanation, only tuning back in to hear Nursey direct a question at him. 

“Babe, what do you think? I know it's only the first date, but should we splurge?” Dex could swear there was a twinkle in the other boy’s eye as he grinned across the table. 

“Nurse?”

“Yeah?”

“Chill.”

“Harsh.” Nursey pouted before turning back to the waiter, who had carefully painted on a neutral expression. “I think we’ll pass for today. I will have the spaghetti. What about you, hon?”

Dex ordered and the waiter left with their menus. 

Nursey returned to pouting. “You never take me out!” he whined. 

“That's because I don't like you,” Dex said, calmly sipping his glass of water. 

Nursey scoffed, acting offended. “That's no way to speak to a lady.”

Dex groaned and his his head in his hands. “This class is so stupid. Yay, Samwell for being so inclusive and shit, but this class... ” He trailed off, pausing for a moment before taking a deep breath and continuing. “I had to take it. If I wanted to stay on track for graduation and keep my scholarships, I needed to get this required credit out of the way.”

Nursey raised his eyebrows. “Bro, sex ethics is an important thing to learn about. If more people-”

“But I’m ace, so why do I need this?” Dex interrupted, looking up at him.

Nursey blinked. “Okay,” he said, simply.

Dex raised an eyebrow. “Thanks.”

“What did you want me to say?” Nursey asked. “That I should start looking for someone else to take me home tonight?”

“Look, just because you’ve been out as pan to everyone-”

“Hey, pansexuality is just as valid and just as invisible as asexuality.”

“-doesn’t mean that other people don’t want to keep this stuff to themselves.”

“I know,” Nursey said quietly. A moment of silence passed between the two. “So. Ace.”

“Yup.”

“Aro?”

“Huh?”

“Aromantic? It's like asexuality, except instead of sexual attraction, it's romantic attraction.”

Dex looked away. “I’m not sure.”

“Well, do you think you'd enjoy being romantic with someone else? Like hand holding and kissing in public and being generally gross with another human being?”

Dex scrunched up his face, laughing despite his attempts to be serious. “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

As dinner continued on, Dex’s mind began to wander. Did he want a romantic relationship? Would it possibly work if he didn’t want sex? Where would he find somebody who accepted that, or even understood?

“Poindexter?”

Dex blinked, returning to reality. “Uh, yeah. I'm here,” he said.

“Am I boring you, hun?” Nursey asked. Dex could swear there was a little twinkle in his eye as he smirked.

“Of course not. You know I hang on every word that drops from your lips,” Dex insisted, rolling his eyes. This time there was most definitely a twinkle, and Dex did his best to ignore the fact that his smile came a little too easily. He was having more fun than he’d expected. Maybe this date with Nursey wouldn’t be a total disaster.

~~~

“Two tickets for The Boy Next Door, please,” Dex said to the teenage girl in the box office.

She flicked her eyes up at him, glancing at Nursey before looking back down at the screen in front of her. “Fourteen-ninety-eight.”

Nursey swiped his card before Dex had the chance to hand her the cash. Dex glared at him, but Nursey just smiled and shrugged. “You can buy me popcorn.”

The girl handed Dex the tickets. “Theater four to your left. Enjoy your movie.”

He thanked her as they headed back toward the concession stand. 

“What’s this movie about, anyway?” Nursey asked as the line inched forward.

“Not sure. The poster looks creepy. Thriller? I saw part of the trailer. I think some guy dies.”

“It does kind of sound like it could be a serial-killer-hiding-in-plain-sight thing.”

~~~

It was not a serial-killer-hiding-in-plain-sight thing.

Approximately two hours later, Dex sat frozen in his seat, very purposely not allowing any part of him to touch Nursey. Onscreen, the main character was screaming and barreling his way through a hospital toward the room where his love interest lay on the brink of death. The sight of a tough-looking “bad boy” sobbing as his neighbor-slash-childhood-best-friend-slash-boyfriend breathed his last did nothing to calm him. 

As the other boy flatlined, other audio was cut out as the screen showed the main character being dragged away in slow motion, unable to believe that the boy he loved was gone. 

The screen faded to black. As the credits began, backed by some sad song with just an acoustic guitar and crooning vocals, Dex realized that he’d not moved in quite a while. 

Nursey looked over at him. “Br-“

“Don’t say anything,” Dex muttered, cutting him off. He stood stiffly, gripping his still-mostly-full popcorn bag, and exited the theater, Nurse following behind. 

An usher with the words “Fry Guy” scribbled over his name tag in permanent marker stood against the side of the theater with a broom, waiting for it to empty. “Thank you for picking up your trash!” he says with fake enthusiasm, grimacing when Dex and Nursey ignore him. 

Outside their auditorium but still inside the building, the two leaned against the wall, a distinct foot and a half of empty space between them. 

They didn’t look at each other for a bit, or even speak until Nursey piped up with, “At least somebody died, so you were right on that point.”

Dex choked out a laugh. “Don’t think I didn’t see you tearing up when he was rushed to the hospital.”

This time, Nursey laughed. “Hey, I’m confident enough in my masculinity to admit I have emotions.”

The chuckles trailed off into another awkward silence. 

“I’m just gonna-”

“Let’s g-”

It happened all at once. Dex went to pass Nursey to throw away his popcorn bag, Nursey went to pass Dex to head toward the exit, and neither wanted to look at the other. So it stands to reason that they would find themselves meeting in the middle, as their lips met mid-sentence. 

Eyes wide with panic, they both shot back, looking anywhere but at the other person. Dex’s face turned the color of his hair as his brain put the moment on instant replay. 

“Uh-”

“Um-”

“I didn’t mean to…”

“I just wanted to…”

They stammered over each other before both trailing off. 

Dex started to close himself off. “I didn’t bring you here because I thought-”

Nursey cut him off. “No, obviously, plus you’re ace, and I would never-”

“-but you’ve been confusing me, and who knows what romantic attraction is anyway, and-”

“-and it’s chill, you know, sometimes people-”

“-maybe I’ve been wanting to kiss you for a while, and-”

“-wait. What?”

Nursey stopped the conversation and the two paused, finally daring to look at each other again. 

Dex flinched preemptively, braced for a chirp, but relaxed when he saw Nursey’s open expression. 

“What was that?” Nursey asked, a hint of a smile on his face. 

Dex took a deep breath. “Fuck it,” he mumbled, moving back in. He brought his hands up this time, dropping the popcorn bag so he could grab Nursey’s face and pull it toward his own. 

Nursey smiled into the kiss as he settled his hands on Dex’s hips, pulling him even closer. 

“Are you kidding me?” a voice from behind them asked. They pulled apart, smiling stupidly at each other. The usher’s shoulders drooped at the sight of the mess on the floor.

“Sorry, we’ll-” Dex started. 

“Just go.” The usher waved them off and began sweeping. “Fucking hockey players,” he muttered under his breath. 

Dex and Nursey headed for the door, fingers intertwined. 

“So,” said Nursey. 

“So,” repeated Dex. 

“Please tell me you didn’t kiss me because it was on the rubric.”

Dex laughed and punched Nursey’s arm with his free hand. “Yeah, Nurse, I kissed you for an assignment.”

Nursey looked down at their clasped hands. “Shit, we’re gonna get tons of fines, aren’t we.”

Dex considered this. “It’s for class?”

Nursey grinned and moved closer to kiss him once again. “Sure, Poindexter. Whatever you say.”

**Author's Note:**

> This is in the same universe as my other fic, Fun At The Movies. Fry Guy just can't catch a break, can he?
> 
> Also - accidental kiss? 100% possible. Leah's worked on many of my pieces with me, and then that happened, and now we're in love, so that's cool. Find us on tumblr at meandmybrokenfeels and baerito69.


End file.
